So it turns out Big Brother can track all our phone calls, peek over our shoulders at our Internet usage and prosecute members of the Fourth Estate for doing their jobs.

At least, he won’t let private companies patent our genes.

The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Thursday that human genes are a product of nature and not an invention, and therefore cannot be patented for use as a kind of private property. Well, duh.

Still, the U.S. Patent Office had granted patents on two genes linked to breast and ovarian cancer to Utah-based Myriad Genetics Inc., which has vigorously enforced its monopoly on testing for those cancer genes. As a result, a woman whose genetic tests showed she has the cancer genes has not been able to get a second opinion — a second test — from any other source.

And many women could not afford Myriad’s monopoly-based pricing on tests for the BRAC1 and BRAC2 genes, which cost more than $3,000. Now, other companies can develop such tests and bring down the price.

The court’s ruling said that a “naturally occurring” DNA segment could not be patented, but that a DNA segment that is “synthetically created” in a lab can be. So this ruling will not put an end to the search for genetically engineered drugs.

But it does mean a company can’t claim a part of the human anatomy as its own, just because its scientists were the first to identify it.